Jerry: - Well, I guess I should go and pick up those Thor rocket launchers that Tod disassembled and modded into a stationary rocket launcher device. That mad man.

Tod: - You know, that I am sitting next to you. 

Jerry: - But, of course. You should drive the ship that way since Stan is not here right now, and I will start up the SCV in the meanwhile to be ready for the work when we reach the spot.

Tod says, as a small smile appears at the corner of his lips.

Tod: - Now, that is something I like to hear. ~At the end of his short reply he stands up and walks out of the room, towards the bridge.

Jerry: - Now, tell me, girl, before I leave, how did you even find this particularly unique zerg in the middle of a battlefield. Don't get me wrong. It could be a simple coincidence, but after knowing you for quite some time, I believe that it must be something more complicated. So, out with it. 

Mady: - If, I would still work under the dominion, I would have to kill you since, you know, way too much. 

Jerry opens his arms magnanimously, then says.

Jerry: -Lucky me.

Mady makes an irritated face.

Mady: -Oh god, sometimes you can really crawl under my skin, you old crook. 

Jerry: -How dare you. I am not even that old. ~He grins.~ But seriously, what is this all about? 

Mady: -Well, to be honest, I don't really know. I was actually drawn to that place from the moment I stepped out of the ship. As if I wanted to go there. I am not even sure how I got that close. I just awoke with a jolt after a rocket blew up before me, much, much closer than I would like to admit. And she was already there, injured, barely holding onto her consciousness.

Jerry: - Are you telling me that something controlled your mind? 

Mady: - No, it wasn't like that, it was more like a suggestion or intuition. It wasn't intrusive at all, but it felt good, peaceful and I was lost in that feeling. I think. That is why I unknowingly got close to it. 

Jerry: - It is interesting, and sad at the same time. This life, this world is as far from peaceful as you can get. It leaves a scar on all of us, I think. ~Jerry looks into the eyes of Mady with wary curiosity.~ Tell me, is that girl the cause of that feeling?

Mady thinks this through, seriously.

Mady: -For some reason, I didn't think about that before... Oh damn, it must be! I can feel it now as I focus on it consciously. It was guiding my thoughts away from this realization until you asked for it. Strange, the psionic force of it is pretty weak, but it is constantly flowing outwards. How is this even possible?

Jerry: - What do you mean by that? 

Mady: - You know, as an ex-ghost I have a capacity for psionic energy, but using them constantly would tire me out very fast and if I didn't stop, I could even die from the repercussions. Yet, this thing uses it even in a comatose state, which I thought to be impossible. Well, I don't know basically anything about how zergs use psionic energy, but it isn't reassuring at all.

Jerry: - No, but it is interesting. I will try to look into that later, but now I must go and you should look after your adopted daughter.

~Jerry finishes the discussion with a wink and walks out of the room with a sardonic smile on his face.

Mady: Sighs. -I should have realized that a shithead like him would never let go of an opportunity to rile me up. Well, since I have nothing else to do, I may just do that, but only after I have visited the canteen. ~Takes a few steps towards the door, then falters.~ Can zergs even eat normal food? Hmm, in the worst-case scenario I still can feed it with Jerry. Oh, that would be a site to see, giggles, and walks out of the room with rejuvenated conviction. 

At this time, in another place on the ship, the so-called zerg girl slowly but surely returns from its short slumber. Or maybe it just awoken because most of its body was aching like hell and the sedatives were losing effectiveness faster than the terrans predicted.

First, I only felt discomfort. Then slowly this feeling turned into pain, and that pain started to become stronger until the moment I could not ignore it anymore. My eyes shot open, but a bright light was making me instantly regret that decision, as my eyelids reflexively closed. I tried to cover my eyes, but my arms were not able to reach my face. Something was preventing them from moving freely. That was really annoying.

After a few seconds, I started to open my eyes again. This time more carefully, my eyes began to adapt, and soon I was able to look around a bit. First of all, I looked down and checked my arms. What I found only confused me. My arms were bound to a strange flat thing that I was actually lying on. Soon I realized that my legs were bound too.

After the initial shock disappeared I tried to free myself, but my strength wasn't enough and the cold locks around my limbs didn't seem to budge. As time passed I had to stop struggling, since the pain that woke me up only became more potent with unsuccessful escape attempts. I stopped moving and realized that most of the pain was coming from my back. It was a pulsing pain that was constantly distracting and scaring me. I tried to move one of my wings since it felt odd, but the only thing that changed was feeling more pain. I turned my head and looked upon my wing, or what was left of it. Only the third of it was still attached to my back, and it was burned. I hastily looked to the other side as a cold terror started to settle in my stomach.

My other wing was missing entirely. I took in a sudden breath to try and calm down my rising panic. There was only one question in my mind:  What, happened to me? I tried to remember what could have led to this development, but nothing came to mind. The last of my memories was watching the overlord as it floated in the sky of that strange planet. Wait, overlord? That's it! I just have to ask the overlord. I began to search for the psionic connection in my mind. I wanted to enforce it for easier understanding. To my horror, I couldn't find it. Neither could I sense any other connections towards the other zerg lifeforms. There was simply nothing, but silence and darkness.

In any other situation, it would feel peaceful, but right now when I was unable to move and was on the edge of panic, it was, terrifying, and confusing. Why couldn't I feel any connection towards the zergs. Why was I bound, what happened with my wings, and where was I right now? A strange thought appeared in my mind, followed by a betrayed lonely feeling. Was I left behind, again? I could not really understand this question myself, as I remembered there was no other experience like this in my short life. Yet the intensity of the feelings attached to this thought was so powerful that it seemed to be more than a moment of panic-induced hallucination.

There was a strange sensation on my face, as if something wet was flowing out of my eyes. That gave me pause. Something strange was happening to me, but I should not let myself be distracted by my body right now. I gathered my willpower, and for the first time started to look around. I was in the middle of a small room strapped to this thing, and aside from the irritating light source above me, there was nothing else. Suddenly I heard a noise, then the wall before me split in two. Almost instantly, something practically jumped into the room.

I was taken aback and would have certainly run away if I could, since that option was not achievable I did the next best thing. I watched the intruder and tried to appear indifferent, or at least not too scared like I was. For a time it seemed to work, as the creature stopped and seemed to become confused. 

A few minutes earlier in the canteen. 

(From the perspective of Mady.)

I never thought that I would actually be happy that Tod shot down the television by accident when he tried arm-wrestling with Jerry. Obviously, he used his cybernetic arm. Now the only thing I need is food and silence, and since everyone else is doing something, the canteen is the ideal place for me. Well, there was still that game console thingy, Blow Up the Toss or something like that. I bet Tod was the number one to finish it. I looked down at the plate with my mostly eaten sandwiches. Much better than the nutrition bars the dominion gave to their slaves, they even had the nerve to call us agents to make us feel special. The only thing that was special was our rotten luck to be born with psionic powers in a family that had not enough political power to back you up. It was basically a first-rate ticket towards hell. Nah, enough with the pity party. I should finish here and go back to the...

There was a sudden fluctuation in the psionic energies around the ship. I could almost feel the confusion, then the fear and panic radiating from it. I focused on the source. It was the girl, just as I thought. How did it wake up so soon, I thought it would sleep for a day at least. Jerry must have underestimated the zergs metabolism or detoxication ability. I jumped up from the table and sprinted towards the room where we locked the zerg.

Soon after I reached the door, that led to the impromptu prison, I typed in the right code to the console and the door opened with a hiss. I ran into the room without much thinking, but after a few steps towards the operation table, I froze. What the flying fuck is that. On the operation table that we just upgraded with a few limb locks, was a very much alive and awake zerg girl.

That was not unexpected, but you see, the thing was crying a fountain, and its hands were visibly trembling from fear. That would already be shocking for a war veteran who was used to blowing up zerg heads with her sniper about as much as drinking water. The thing even tried to make an indifferent face while constantly crying. Wanna look tough heh? The only thing it really achieved was to look hilarious.

She is watching me as well and for some reason, I started to feel kinda guilty. Damn, I always had a soft spot for children and this zerg for sure was looking and acting like one. 

Mady: ~Says unknowingly - I never thought that I would see a zerg cry.

Zerg girl: - What do you mean?

Did, did that thing just ask me a question, like that was the most natural thing in the world. I must be going crazy...

Mady: ... 

Zerg girl: ...

Mady: - Did you just ask me a question? 

Zerg girl: -... Yes?

I am going crazy, now, it is certain. Should I do it normally, act like she is a normal girl, ask what her name is... no, that would be strange. 

Mady: - Do you understand me? 

Zerg girl: -...... Yes, and you understand me too, yes?

Mady: - Well, yes! 

There was an awkward silence for about half a minute before the zerg girl asked another question.

Zerg girl: - Isn't that normal? 

Mady: - No. I mean, yes... Ah, it depends. 

Zerg girl: - Depends on what?

Mady: - What are you exactly?

Zerg girl: - I am a queen of the swarm. 

Mady: - ...Stan is going to kill me... 

The zerg girl started to get less scared and more interested in speaking since she realized there was no immediate danger to her. What should I do now, should I call the others? 

Mady: - How is this possible, that you can speak in terran language? 

Zerg girl: - I was able to speak this way, since the moment I was born.

Mady: - When was that? 

Zerg girl: - I am not sure, I was hibernating for a time. I don't have many memories. I think I only have around 40 or 50 hours of life experience. 

What? Is she telling me, that she is less than three days old? And she was able to speak when she was born? Well, suggesting that all of the zergs basically were born to be ready for battle, I guess it is not even that out of context. The only thing that makes it strange is that it has the face of a human teenager with extras instead of a giant roach that kills everything around itself. 

Zerg girl: - Why am I bound to this thing, and what happened to me? My back hurts. 

Now that is an awkward question. Does she not remember that we almost blasted her to smithereens. Best to leave it at that, I think. What should I tell her? Maybe a half-truth will do. 

Mady: - Well, we found you lying on the ground injured, because you looked strange. We brought you back to our ship for research purposes. 

The girl's face visibly whitened after hearing this.

Zerg girl: - You are going to dismantle my body?

What the fuck was that, I mean, yeah, the dominion would do that without blinking an eye, but this assumption was really annoying. We are honest pirates after all. Well, killing things, even people is, was my job, but I was never into torture. Suddenly an idea popped into my mind. Yes, that will do. I put on a sinister smile and started to walk around the room slowly without breaking eye contact with the girl. She quickly became uncomfortable under my gaze. After waiting a bit more, I started to talk.

Mady: - Well, well, well. You know, to be honest, we were thinking about just that, but since you seem to be an intelligent girl, and you understand what we tell you, you may differ from that path. If, you cooperate, and do exactly what we tell you to do when we tell you to do.

I stopped at the side of the girl and looked into her eyes. She was obviously intimidated and could not hide her fear. I leaned closer.

Mady: - You see, what you have to understand. From now on, you are at our mercy, if we want to kill you we could do it anytime. Do you understand?

Zerg girl: -... I do.

Mady: - You are from now on a prisoner of this ship, not some queen of the swarm, and tell me, what is your name? 

Zerg girl: - What is a prisoner, and a name? 

Fuck me sideways. Did she understand the other parts at all? Or she just agreed with anything I said from fear... Calm down, zergs, well, they don't really have prisoners or names? That must be the problem. What to do? Best to keep it simple and intimidating. 

Mady: - A prisoner is someone who did something wrong and is punished, and therefore is at the mercy of others. While a name is something you are called to be easily differentiated from others. 

Zerg girl: - But, I did nothing wrong, and I don't have a name. If you connect to someone's psionic channels, you can speak to it directly so there is no use for a name. 

I should not underestimate her logic. She actually just turned the table on me. 

Mady: - You said it yourself that you have little to no life experience, how would you know what are the rules out here? 

Zerg girl: - The Overlord would tell me if there was something dangerous. 

Mady: - Wrong and good is not measured by the level of danger you can face by doing something. 

Am I really going to speak about morality with this zerg? And after everything, how can I even say this with a straight face. I am a frickin pirate and a runaway ghost. 

Mady: - But, enough of this I am not here to speak about morals. Until I figure out something better, I will call you prisoner because that is what you are, get used to it. Now I will go and speak with the others. You will stay here and wait for me until I come back. Don't worry, I will be fast.

Prisoner: - ... I understood. 

Mady: - That's it, you learn fast.

As the door shuts behind Mady, her intimidating aura dissipates. She sighs. 

Uhh, that actually worked like a charm... Damn, it is much easier to shoot things from afar than to interact with them personally, using words. Was that intimidation really necessary? Well, at least she knows her place right now, it is the best for everyone. Otherwise, Stan would blow her up, and most likely me too.

I don't need them to know that she is a queen.  One of the most dangerous and cunning kinds of zerg. It is even possible that this whole thing was just a charade, but I would be surprised. The waves of emotions in her psionic channels were too genuine. She was projecting them as if she didn't know how to control or hide them at all. Which is possible if she is really that young. We don't really know anything about how hive queens are born. Maybe they have to learn just like us. Now I am going to call the others, we have to do something about this situation.